Real-time simulation of AFM tip-surface cohesive interactions

International audienceThe manipulation of nano-objects requires specific instruments as Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM). Despite qualities and performances of these devices, many physicists complained about the lacks of adequate man-AFM interfaces, since the experimentalist can not control the AFM tip during the sample scan or feel in real-time the results of his actions on the sample surface. The work presented here aims to this objective: allowing the experimentalist to act on and feel the nanoworld phenomena during the manipulation by the use of multisensory representations including the force feeling

Atomic Force Microscope Functionality Simulation : Physical and Energetic Analogies

Poster - http://www.asmeconferences.org/conference-home/NANO.cfmInternational audienceUsing Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) to manipulate nano-objects is an actual challenge for both physicians and biologists. Many visual and haptic interfaces between the AFM and experimentalists have already been implemented. The multi-sensory renderings (seeing, hearing, feeling) studied from a cognitive point of view increase the efficiency of the actual interfaces and represent our challenge. To allow the experimentalist to feel and touch the nano-world, we add mixed realities between an AFM and a force feedback device, enriching thus the direct connection by a modeling engine. The functionality of an AFM is described in this paper through physical and energetic analogies

Approaching nano-spaces : 1-DOF nanomanipulator

International audienceDifferent scientific fields like biology or physics develop applications where a successful nano-object manipulation is peremptory. In the aim of realizing a useful multi-sensory interface allowing thus, human presence in the nano-world, we present in this paper the first results from the one-degree of freedom (DOF) nano-manipulator developments that connects an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) with our Force Feedback Gestural Device (FFGD). The application of the AFM-FFGD coupling contains a redefining of the real-time remote-control handling, bringing in the concept of mixed reality. The designed models described in this paper represent the basis of the virtual reconstruction of a nano-scene

Touching nanospace : Atomic Force Microscope coupling with a force feedback manipulation system

International audienceToday, Scanning Probe Microscopies (SPM) are widely used in physics, chemistry and biology in order to image surfaces with a great resolution but also more and more as tool to manipulate nano-objects or to modify surfaces at nanometer scale. At the present time, using SPM to manipulate nano-objects is not user friendly and is time consuming. These two weak points are due to the absence of feedback control in real time of the tip movements and of tip-surface or tip/nano-objects interactions. The aim of our research work is to realise an active feedback control interface which will allow to feel in real time but also to simulate the tip movement and/or tip-surface/nano-objects interactions

Dynamical issues at the low level of Human/ virtual object interaction

International audienceSome application areas such as musical synthesis, animation or more generally, instrumental arts, have specific requirements for the "haptic rendering" of small movements that go beyond the thresholds that usual simulators and haptic interfaces allow. The quality of a simulator is specifically brought by the dynamical properties of its components: haptic interface, simulator and control system. For such type of applications, variations of objects intrinsic properties and mutual combinations are relevant aspects which bring about global properties of an entire object domain as well as restitute specific object properties. As a general aim, rather than to minimize the technical effects to reach transparency, we intent to characterize them by physical metaphors conferring to haptic medium the role of a tool. This standpoint leads to firstly analyze the natural human-object interaction as a simplified evolving system and then considers its synthesis in the case of the interactive physical simulation. By means of a frequential method, this approach is presented for some elementary configurations of the simulator

Dynamical Issues in Interactive Representation of Physical Objects

7 pages - Talk session: "Soft"International audienceThe quality of a simulator equipped with a haptic interface is given by the dynamical properties of its components: haptic interface, simulator and control system. Some application areas of such kind of simulator like musical synthesis, animation or more general, instrumental art have specific requirements as for the "haptic rendering" of small movements that go beyond the usual haptic interfaces allow. Object properties variability and different situations of object combination represent important aspects of such type of application which makes that the user can be interested as much in the restitution of certain global properties of an entire object domain as in the restitution of properties that are specific to an isolate object. In the traditional approaches, the usual criteria are founded on the paradigm of transparency and are related to the impedance error introduced by the technical aspects of the system. As a general aim, rather than to minimize these effects, we look to characterize them by physical metaphors conferring to haptic medium the role of a tool. This positioning leads to firstly analyze the natural human object interaction as a simplified evolutive system and then considers its synthesis in the case of the interactive physical simulation. By means of a frequential method, this approach is presented for some elementary configurations of the simulato

PRESENCE: The Sense of Believability of Inaccessible Worlds

Talk session: "Shared and Virtual Worlds" - Special issue on Cyberworlds - Published in Computers & Graphics (vol.28, issue 4, 2004)International audienceWith the development of communication methods and devices, it became possible to perform actions more and more distant from the task spaces. These new tools raise today the question of Presence of distant spaces with a growing accuracy. In a first part, we show that the distance between the manipulation space and the task space, in a teleoperation activity, points to different meanings. However, the same need for a strong Presence of the task space raises, whatever the distance between these spaces is. We then discuss the notion of Presence as a cross-point between technological and scientific disciplines, and propose some general idea that may reinforce it. In a second part, we illustrate the previous ideas with the example of manipulation of nano-objects. We show how it is possible to enhance dramatically the feeling of Presence of the nano-objects to be perceived and manipulated, by adding haptic bi-directional transducers to the visual and acoustical sensors used today. By the end, we defend the idea that the feeling of Being there is deeply dependent on multisensoriality